Philly Loves the Lawsuits
It looks like the Mayor hearts the unconstitutional!
The Institute for Justice is challenging Philadelphia’s new requirement that tour guides be licensed and take special history and geography exams. IJ seems to be exactly right on this: Such a requirement violates the First Amendment.
The government surely couldn’t require that authors of history books or travel books be licensed and take exams. Nor can it require the same as to producers of travel documentary DVDs, or actors in theaters that present history/geography-related informational entertainment.
Such restrictions would be seen as unconstitutional content-based prior restraints, even if they don’t purport to directly control (say, through loss of license) what is said: They bar speakers from speaking until a license is received, they are justified by the desire to prevent speech with a bad content, and they apply only to speakers who would convey a particular sort of content (history or geography in my hypotheticals).
The answer isn’t any different for tours, which are likewise a form of history-/geography-related infotainment. They are speech in the quite literal sense of the word, and they are no less constitutionally protected than are books, videos, or plays.
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